The second annual fest of street art ‘Beton Fest Sarajevo 2013’ will be held in the capital city form 28 August to 1 September, with the participation of dozens of young artists from the country, region and world.
Traditionally, the street paint festival takes place on the sidewalks of main squares in cities, and the organizer of the Sarajevo second edition of the festival is the Association for the Development of Culture and Art ‘Progres’ from Sarajevo.
This was said at a press conference in Sarajevo last night, in which the contents of the festival were presented by the project manager Sabina Šehović, President of the Association ‘Progres’ Zlatko Šljivnjak and Adis Nović, the PR manager.
The festival will be held in four locations-in front of the Cathedral, in front of BBI center, Trg Djece Sarajevo and Vilsonovo šetalište, where participants/young artists will have the opportunity to show there quality on the 3D and 2D art scene within individual and team competitions.
As part of the festivities, a small school of 3D art will be organized, and several workshops, with the participation of world renowned creators in this kind of artistic expression (drawing using chalk). There will also be an entertainment program, a concert by the group Činčila, A cappella group BasicS and a salsa and hip-hop party in cooperation with the dance club ‘Romantik’.
The promoters of the festival said that last year’s ‘Beton Fest’, the first such event in B&H, attracted large public attention, around 70,000 people that participated in various events, as well as a large number of renowned 3D street art artists from all over Europe.
The festival also provided the opportunity for local young artists, especially students in the final year at the Academy of Fine Arts.
Competition works that will be presented as part of this year’s ‘Beton Fest’ could be 3D imagery and two-dimensional drawings, and the artists of the best works will be given awards that are provided by the company ‘Prestigio’, which is the general sponsor of this festival.
This unique cultural event is the second festival of its kind in the world, next to Street Painting Festival in the Netherlands.
Otherwise, the first international festival of street art was held in 1972 in Grazie di Curtatone, Italy.
The first known street painter in the US was Sidewalk Sam, who began drawing on the streets of Boston in 1973.
In 1982, Kurt Wenner, an American painter, began street painting in Rome. Until 1983, he used a pre-existing anamorphic art form of drawing on the street, and then brushing and his painting of pastels.
During the past decades, artists developed new styles, based on the works of artists such as Andrea Mantegna, MC Escher, Michelangelo, Hans Holbein and others, announced the organizers.